A/N: Hello again. It was fast, wasn't it?
I think, I'll go with Kamachi-sensei's chapter structure. By the way, all the rights on the characters and setting are his. Unless I'd introduce OCs.
Expect three or four more chapters till the end of this arc and an epilogue. And... I'll leave some things till the end of the chapter.
Chapter 1. Peaceful days. The_Night_has_Come.
Part 1.
There were many wonders in Academy City.
Some of them were unconfirmed rumors.
Let us take for an example Imaginary Number District Five Elements Institution. It was said that it was the very first laboratory which gave a start to the rise of Academy City. However, no one knew where it was nowadays. Still, there were some rumors that Tree Diagram, supercomputer sent into the space, could be made using only materials from Imaginary Number District.
Another example would be Clone Dolly workshop. DNA-maps of many saints and famous people, who changed the world, were held there, rumors said. It was assumed that Academy City was able to violate international regulations and create clones with the help of its technologies. No one was able to prove these assumptions, though.
However, there was one wonder which could be seen by anyone who lived in Academy City.
It was the Windowless Building.
It was said that each and every room in that building did not have windows and doors. Basically, each room was a completely enclosed space. It was unknown how the needed materials were provided there but most people would prefer to not know while those who knew were forced to keep their mouths shut. Because of that, the most sturdy fortress in the world was said to be impenetrable.
Nevertheless, there were methods to move through the building. For example, you could use high-level Teleporters to bring the guests to the Windowless Building.
Stiyl Magnus felt a bit dizzy after a small trip to the room where he found himself now. For some reason, the messenger refused to send him here right away, insisting that they needed to walk some distance on foot. What a weirdo. She was a Teleporter, was she not?
The boy looked around in amazement. He saw countless bright lines that lit the dark room and made its interior. His gaze, though, caught the sight of wires and tubes that led him to the center of the room where the General Superintendant of Academy City himself resided.
"Good morrow to you, General Superintendant." Stiyl said, trying to hide the surprise in his eyes.
It was hard, to say the least.
General Superintendant was an eccentric person, indeed. It was impossible to discern their gender just from observing them for they appeared like a male, yet feminine, like a child, yet having the look of an elder man, like a saint, yet resembling a criminal. It was like they had thrown away everything that made a human. Or, maybe, they gathered everything to become what they were now? It was like a Buddhist's riddle.
What caught the young Magician's attention was the object where General Superintendant floated upside-down. It was a huge cylinder, four meters in diameter and ten meters in height. The cylinder was filled with some colored liquid but Stiyl had no idea what it was.
"Likewise, young man. Just for your information, the liquid in the cylinder is a weakly alkaline recovery fluid." General Superintendant said with a calm face. His long white hair somehow had its form fixed behind their green robe.
"I… have no idea what it is." Stiyl decided to tell the truth to cover his sudden fear. He knew that it was unlikely that his mind was read but he did not want to risk.
"I hope, you do not."
"Well, it's time to omit pleasantries, is it not?" Stiyl said, feeling the darkness hid by General Superintendant's words.
"It certainly is. I guess, your superiors already informed you that there was a significant change of your plans, did they not?" General Superintendant asked.
"They left out details."
"That troublesome woman…"
Stiyl was surprised to see a hint of anger in General Superintendant's eyes. He almost thought that the twisted human in front of him was incapable of showing any emotions.
"Let's proceed to the explanations then. The problem your superiors mentioned is a trouble for both Magic and Science Sides."
Stiyl remained silent.
"If it was a ruckus made by one of Espers, the city itself would use one of 70,632 ways to deal with them. However, once a Magician enters the picture, we need external help from Magic Side. We cannot let an Esper defeat a Magician, after all."
"So, that's where I am needed." Stiyl muttered.
"Exactly. There will be some help from Academy City's residents, though. There's the structure of your infiltration target."
"Misawa… Cram School?" Stiyl slowly examined the plans of the building and information about his mission. "What do you mean by 'help'?"
"I will be sending one Esper to help you with your mission."
"But haven't you said that you cannot do it because of political issues?" Stiyl raised an eyebrow.
"He's just a Level 0. The threat of him leaking secrets of both Sides is minimal, his knowledge is not enough for something like that. Besides…" General Superintendant smiled. "I am interested. What is the meaning behind Deep Blood's ability? What would bring his involvement?"
Stiyl shuddered. That General Superintendant was twisted enough to view humans as nothing but chess figures on a giant desk. Besides, he did not welcome the thought that they were able to reject so many human aspects except for one – that body. General Superintendant was surely able to free himself from such restrictions brought by frail human body through the help of machinery.
"It is a dangerous thought, my dear Magician." General Intendant smiled.
Stiyl sighed.
Part 2.
Kamijou Touma sighed.
He was currently on his Summer studies because he missed a few months' share of lessons. That morning, on July 20th, he received a cute message from his petite teacher who was standing behind her desk. In fact he could hardly even see her pink hair.
Their homeroom teacher, Tsukuyomi Komoe, was a woman with a body of a small girl. She was one of "Seven Wonders of Academy City", who was said to obtain the secret of eternal youth. It was, of course, just a rumor but, considering her real age, it might have some grounds behind it.
Currently Komoe-sensei decided to start with revising some old material.
"Let us start from the basics. Kamijou-chan, what do you know about the theory behind Espers' abilities?"
"Teach, I fail to understand how Schrödinger's theory backs up the Personal Reality." Touma said lazily. He was met with inquisitive gaze of Fukiyose who showed him her fist. He was more afraid of her famous forehead that could crush even walls. Or so he heard. "C'mon, what are you doing here anyways, Fukiyose?"
"To keep you all in check." The girl answered. Her long black hair flowed behind her back, leaving her forehead open. Her dark violet school uniform could not hide her outstanding forms which naturally attracted attention of male half of the classroom. It was sad that Fukiyose held enough destructive power to completely break their delusions with bare hands.
"The more the merrier, Kami-yan!" Blue-haired boy with a piercing in his ear cheerfully said. Like Fukiyose, he was a class representative. With his open-minded nature, it was almost natural that he had that role except for the fact that he was a huge pervert.
"Yeah, yeah." Kamijou said tiredly, frowning at his growling stomach. After last night's fight with Railgun, his electronics at the dorm died completely, meaning that food in his fridge was already wasted by the time he came home. That morning he ruined his breakfast by somehow managing to throw his instant noodles into faucet and breaking his credit card. In the end of the day, he was just a hungry high school student.
"Fukiyose-chan?" Komoe-sensei asked tearfully.
The girl stood up immediately.
"Yes, teacher! Schrödinger's theory says that we cannot see the state of things before we confirm the outcome of the event. In other words, the matter itself might be in two alternate forms with equal probability if we are not able to observe it to confirm our assumptions. However, an Esper's Personal Reality allows us to rewrite the outcome by letting micro space influence macro world." Fukiyose answered without hesitation.
Tsukuyomi beamed at the girl happily.
"That's right. Thank you, Fukiyose-chan." The teacher said. "Personal Reality allows an Esper to turn impossible into possible by overruling the world's laws. One of phenomena brought to the surrounding world is an AIM-field emitted by each Esper. With one exception over there."
Komoe-sensei turned to Touma. He cringed, knowing the results of System Scan, which was a series of consecutive tests performed by some specialists to gauge the potential of students. It was said that he was an absolute Level 0, being unable to emit even the slightest AIM-field.
AIM stood for 'An Involuntary Movement'. It was some kind of energy brought to the world by subconscious reactions of Esper's mind to the external world. The more an Esper's perception of the world was distorted, the more powerful did he become. It was not a law of that world but it was like a rule of a thumb.
"Eh, but doesn't Schrödinger's theory contradict the theory behind Espers?" Kamijou asked to divert attention of the whole class.
"No, it simply compliments it." Komoe-sensei smiled knowingly and continued her lecture, starting to draw some diagrams. One circle represented Espers and their Personal Realities while the other one stood for the surrounding world and its laws. The last and the third circle was for micro world with its own laws.
Komoe-sensei drew arrows from Espers to micro world, and from there to external world. After that she closed the cycle by ending it on an arrow leading from external world to Espers.
"That's how our theory works. External world influences the Esper's mind. Personal Reality changes the mechanics behind micro world's rules which allows an Esper to influence external world." Komoe-sensei explained. "I'll omit the comparison to Schrödinger's theory because it's basically the same thing with altered parts."
"Komoe-sensei." Touma asked again. "I have a question."
"Yes, what is it, Kamijou-chan?" The pink-haired teacher tilted her head.
"What if we use the analogy with heat engines and refrigerators? What if we reverse the cycle?" Touma asked.
"That's… a difficult question, teacher can't answer it right away." Komoe-sensei replied with a confused look. "I think, it would result in a Level 2 making small things explode while some other galaxies turn into nothing."
Since Komoe-sensei was so engrossed into answering a difficult question, her speech became simpler.
"That's terrifying if you think about it." Touma shuddered and decided to keep his mouth shut. With his luck he would surely meet an Esper like that. Touma did not want his Universe to collapse, it was fine as it was.
Komoe-sensei started drawing a new diagram which represented what she said before.
Touma heaved a sigh.
He just magnificently made his classmates sit down for another two hours.
And he knew that he would have to pay for that.
"What misfortune."
Part 3.
Kanzaki sat on a small sofa with pleasant texture. If she were to believe what she was told, the sofa automatically scanned the nerve signals from the moment her body touched it and restructured itself to match a guest's preferences. And Kanzaki was inclined to believe these words.
The sofa was comfortable. Hard enough to not let her body sink into it, while being soft to let her tense body relax.
Simplistic interior also soothed her nerves. It was not pleasant to be in a city full of her enemies but soft light, some bamboos in the corners of the room and a bare minimum of furniture let her digest that. She liked that room presented to her by Academy City's General Superintendant but it was hard to fight her emotions.
She wanted to run.
She wanted to cry.
She wanted to scream about being powerless!
Kanzaki Kaori was a special Magician. While her partner Stiyl Magnus was a powerful Magician on his own, she was blessed right from the birth. Her body structure resembled that of the Son of the God which gave her superhuman strength, reflexes and speed. She was a Saint, one of less than twenty unique people in the world.
There was a basic principle behind magic. It was a gift to those who did not have talent. Humans always tried to make up for their weaknesses from ancient times so they turned even magic and religion into their tools.
However, that principle disregarded these special existences, like Saints, allowing them use magic.
Even the weakest spell, used by a Saint, was turned into a high-class attack.
Yet, that did not change the fact that Kanzaki Kaori was unable to save her friends.
"Damn it." The girl gritted her teeth.
She needed to keep her cool. Kanzaki would be unable to pursue Index with her thoughts thrown in disarray.
"Ha… Why did it turn like that? Index?" The girl asked the empty air and closed her eyes.
Tonight she would start her pursuit anew.
Part 4.
Once Komoe-sensei decided that she would deal with the question later, after looking for some new information, the classes went on as usual.
"The other phenomenon brought into this world by Personal Realities is AIM Burst."
"Isn't that an unconfirmed theory?" Fukiyose asked.
Komoe-sensei smiled.
"Yes, but we just had a precedent of discussing such theories."
Fukiyose nodded her head in understanding.
"AIM Burst is a phenomenon that happens once various AIM fields overlap and are destabilized via some sort of interference. The mechanics behind it are unknown since researchers still do not understand completely what AIM field itself is." Komoe-sensei sighed. "That's enough for unconfirmed theories, though. Fukiyose-chan, what was the reason for Tsuchimikado-chan's absence again? He needs these supplementary lessons too."
"Aogami…?" Fukiyose turned to the blue-haired boy.
Aogami Pierce shrugged his shoulders.
"He's ill?"
"Ill? With his ability?" Fukiyose asked, amazed by a blatant lie.
Aogami flashed a crescent-like smile.
"Hey, hey. It's not like his ability can deal with fever and other symptoms." He spoke. "Besides, isn't he always like this?"
"Yeah…"
"That's true…"
"Everyone in Delta Force is like that."
"Hey! Don't lump me with these two!" Touma cried out unbelievingly.
"Says the man who skipped every second day before Summer holidays."
"Besides, no one said that you were in Delta Force, right?"
"Actually… It goes without saying."
"Even Aogami didn't skip that many classes, huh?"
"It's a wonder."
"Totally so."
"Did I just hear world crumbling?"
"Hey!"
"Guys! Don't get sidetracked again!" Fukiyose stood up.
The silence once again reigned in the classroom.
Delta Force which was mentioned before was a trio of reckless boys who always got into troubles. They were Tsuchimikado Motoharu, who was missing today, Aogami Pierce and Kamijou Touma. Touma always protested against being written off as a member of Delta Force but he always hang out with Tsuchimikado and Aogami, so his objections were overruled.
Komoe-sensei sighed. It seemed the day would be as troublesome as ever.
Part 5.
The supplementary classes ended after three more hours of heated discussions. Whenever situation stated to go out of control, Komoe-sensei smiled cutely and mentioned some challenges like Columbus's Egg or See through lesson. Since they were difficult even for Level 3's, Touma and his classmates would immediately keep silence once the challenges were brought up.
It was best not to know about them or go through them.
Touma was wearily walking down the street without thinking. He was tired, and he did not want to remember about the pile of homework he would need to do eventually.
He started humming some tune in order to lighten his mood but he did not even notice it.
Touma looked at the blue sky. The Sun was still at its zenith so it poured its light without any mercy for pitiful souls of citizens. There was not a single cloud there, so he could not expect rain any time soon. Tree Diagram did not predict it either.
"…Hey. Don't ignore me, you idiot! Stop!"
Alas, air conditioning system in his room was not working either. Touma was sure that it would not be fixed until next week since his dorm was on low priority list. There was no meaning in going on sales either since he always bought food for a week, at the very least, and he could not keep them for such a long time now.
"Hey!"
"Oh?" Touma absent-mindedly turned around and saw a furious middle school girl. "Ah, that's just you making a ruckus, Biri Biri?"
"Just? Ruckus? Biri Biri again?" Railgun girl stomped furiously. Bluish-white sparks flew off her hair, and passers-by started taking a surprised look at their phones. Touma hastily brought his right arm to his phone to keep it from harm.
"C'mon, don't get angry. You never gave me your name, remember?"
"And you never asked! I am Misaka Mikoto, remember it!" The girl calmed down a bit, catching his interest.
"Say, wasn't it you who always attacked me without warning since the moment I saved you from these delinquents a month ago?" Touma asked.
Misaka looked confused for a moment, but then she returned to her aggressive manner.
"I never needed your help! Hey, haven't you seen my school uniform? I am from damn Tokiwadai Middle School! It's a given that Tokiwadai students are at least Level 3's!"
"I've seen a damsel in distress, that's all." Touma shrugged his shoulders before bringing up his right arm to shield himself from a lightning.
"Who is damsel in distress? Stop making light of me!"
Uh-oh, it seems that I stepped on the landmine. It's good that I did not mention flat chest of the girl yet, decided Touma.
And then his gaze fell on a cylindrical robot nearby which started giving off ominous-looking smoke.
"Oh, damn it. We need to… run!" Touma cried, grabbing the hand of the confused girl once a siren started ringing.
"Wait-!"
"What misfortune!"
Part 6.
"So that's who that kid is." Stiyl Magnus murmured, standing in one of the back-alleys.
Once he was freed from that Windowless Building by the frowning messenger, he immediately started looking for a student on a photo card given to him. His search was fruitless unless a while ago when he caught a sight of a staggering high school student. Stiyl observed his actions and almost decided to attack him on his own when that strange girl came.
"That's interesting." The Magician said, producing a box of cigarettes out of his robe. Picking one of cigarettes, he lit it with a flick of his fingers and let out a sigh.
"I need to test his powers properly. I think that I understand what Aleister meant by saying he was a natural enemy of Magicians, though."
Stiyl smirked and hid the box inside the robe.
That city was not as boring as he had thought initially.
Part 7.
However, Stiyl Magnus was not the only one who watched the situation from shadows of back-alleys.
There was a middle school girl in simple, yet good-looking sailor uniform. Her dark hair was short and her eyes had an unnatural glint in them. Looking closely, one might find golden stars in her brown irises.
"It's not good-ability, my dear." The girl mused with a deep voice. "You always leave me out of picture-ability."
The girl shook her head and brought her hand to her lips. She frowned and took a look at her phone. It was dead.
"Judging by the position-ability of the Sun… It seems that this girl needs to go back."
With that, the girl went out on the main street and walked away.
Part 8.
"Huff-huff… It's always like that… Biri Biri, control yourself!" Touma said tiredly with his hands on his knees. He looked at the girl who stood beside him in the same position.
"Whose fault… huff-huff… do you think it is?" Misaka's face was red from heat and crazy run with Touma.
"Yours." Touma deadpanned.
Misaka decided to save her breathe, ignoring his words.
Gradually, she straightened her body and let out a sigh. She shook her head and sweat glistened under the Sun rays. Touma was somehow captivated by the sight but he remained himself that it was just Biri Biri once he was met with a hard gaze of the middle school girl.
"Still thinking about challenging me?" He asked leaning on the wall behind him.
Misaka smiled daringly and stretched out her hand in Touma's direction.
"But of course. Where would I find such a worthy opponent to level up?"
The sparks flew out but Touma remained stoic.
"Hey, it's cool and all, but I never went hard on you." He spoke calmly.
Misaka became stone-footed, her face paling rapidly and her gaze wavering. Touma saw how his words were absorbed by one of the walking monsters of Academy City who could destroy a whole army single-handedly. Her brain was capable of performing complex calculations so understanding the meaning behind his simple words was a piece of cake for her.
Touma smiled grimly and slowly walked to Misaka. She stepped back in fear, looking at him with teary eyes. His each step was like a death count to her.
And once that death count reached zero…
She closed her eyes.
"Hey, chill out."
Touma patted her on shoulder and smiled reassuringly to trembling Misaka who slowly opened her eyes.
"It's not like I'll go all out on little girls."
Misaka could only muster some strength to fire a little lightning in Touma's direction but he simply waved it off.
"Good night, Misaka-san." Kamijou walked past her, ignoring the fact that she became stone-footed for a completely different reason.
Part 9.
Once Kamijou Touma reached his room, he hardly could stop himself from falling down on the floor from exhaustion. The only thing that kept him from such an experience was the fact that he left his mattress drying on the balcony.
He heaved a sigh and started cleaning up the mess he left before going to school. He picked up light novels and thick volumes of manga and put them on shelves which threatened to break under the sheer weight of these books. Then he put his clothes into a basket and left it near washing machine in a bathroom. He was too tired to wash them with his own hands.
After that, he threw the spoilt food into a bin and that was it. Now, he only needed to take his mattress from balcony and go to bed.
Kamijou walked past his small table and opened the door to the balcony. What greeted him was a note left on the mattress. It was a wonder why it did not fly away since it was not pinned.
Kamijou gingerly took the note and looked at it.
'To Kamijou Touma,
I have seen your little brawl with that middle school girl, and I think it is not enough to measure your power. Go to the park near your dorm tonight at two PM and prepare yourself.
P.S. If you ignore the note, I'll burn your room down.'
Kamijou Touma looked at the sky tearfully.
However, he could not plead to the skies for the note ignited by itself. Touma touched paper with just fingers of his right hand in panic, and the fire died down.
"What misfortune!"
Part 10.
The night fell.
The silver-haired nun was running on the dark streets of Academy City. She had no idea where she currently was.
However, she remembered that she was here before.
It seemed she was in School District 10.
The buildings here were worn down and looked old for such an urban scenery. The asphalt was littered and it was hard not to step on empty cans. The area looked dangerous for the young girl but she did not mind.
In fact, it was easier to hide here. There were more back-alleys in School District 10 than in School District 7 so it looked like a dark maze.
There were many broken and rusted cars. The windows in buildings did not exist anymore so it was possible to hide there. Not that it mattered for the girl since she knew that her clothes were giving out her location to Magicians.
She looked around and frowned.
Her feet stopped moving.
She heard some voices nearby and it did not sound like it was a pleasant view.
In fact, she wanted to run away from the back-alley she currently was in, so strong was her fear.
She did not want to bring her misfortune to others either.
However, she could not move.
She heard a girl's voice full of pain and a boy's maniacal voice.
The nun could not ignore it.
For she was a servant of the merciful One.
Between the lines 1.
There was a lonely girl in a dark room.
There was no light.
There was no sound.
There was no blood.
The girl found it more comforting than any other place she was in.
"I won't… kill-"
She muttered the same words countless times.
She did not saw anything here.
However, a picture of a field covered by pure white ash did not leave her head.
"I won't kill… anymore."
She did not know for how long she had been here.
Sometimes she was brought to the light.
She heard cries of people.
She did not see them.
She was experimented on.
She did not feel it.
Those who opened the door did not utter a word. However, she grateful to them for that. They were hiding her in a place where she could not kill.
They did not feel sorry for a sinful killer.
It was some kind of mercy for her.
However, one day the silence in her room was broken by some voice.
"How about a deal, Dark Blood?"
And here we go again. I apologize for some mistakes in the first edition of the prologue like a mistake in Aisa's title.
Also, did I introduce too many characters for just a prologue and a first chapter?
I think, everyone knows whose painful cries Index heard. I would not delve into Sisters' Arc deeply for now, but some foreshadowing is in order.
Also, I changed some details of canonical events in the first volume like the stuff Komoe-sensei said but bear with it. I needed some section for infodump and Komoe's lessons were ideal for that.
With that out of the way, I thank you, dear readers, for following my fic. Till the next time!